The Provincial Assembly (Nepali: प्रदेश सभा; Pradesh Sabha) is the unicameral legislative assembly for a federal province of Nepal.[1]
According to Article 176 of the Constitution of Nepal 2015, following the dissolution of the provincial assembly all the members forming the Provincial Assembly are elected. The term for the Provincial Assembly is five years, except when dissolved earlier.
Candidates for each constituency are chosen by the political parties or stand as independents. Each constituency elects one member under the first-past-the-post system of election. Since Nepal uses a parallel voting system, voters cast another ballot to elect members through the party-list proportional representation. The current constitution specifies that 60 percent of the members should be elected from the first-past-the-post system and 40 percent through the party-list proportional representation system. Women should account for one-third of the total members elected from each party and if one-third percentage are not elected, the party that fails to ensure so shall have to elect one-third of the total number as women through the party-list proportional representation.[2]
A party with an overall majority (more seats than all other parties combined) following an election forms the government. If a party has no outright majority, parties can seek to form coalitions.
The first provincial assembly elections in Nepal were held in two phases, on 26 November 2017 and on 7 December 2017.[3]
There are 550 provincial seats in all of the seven provinces of Nepal, in which 330 (60%) of the provincial seats will be elected through first-past-the-post voting and 220 (40%) of seats will be elected through proportional representation.[4]
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As per the Constituency Delimitation Commission report, Koshi Province has 56 provincial seats under the FPTP (first-past-the-post) across 14 districts.[12]
Each district of Madhesh province has 8 provincial assembly seats, totalling to 64 seats under FPTP.[12]: 7
Bagmati has 66 provincial assembly seats under FPTP.
Gandaki has 36 provincial assembly seats under FPTP.
Lumbini has 52 provincial assembly seats under FPTP.
Karnali has 24 provincial assembly seats under FPTP.
Sudurpashchim has 32 provincial assembly seats under FPTP.
Provincial parliaments will be unicameral. "The CA also approved a mixed electoral system for parliamentary election with 60 percent directly elected and 40 percent proportionally elected."
There will be 550 members in all seven provinces after the elections, with Province 3 having the highest number of members (110). Province 7 will have the lowest number of members of 53.